Altrusa International of Downtown Dallas Seeking New Members
Dallas Attorney Martha Hofmeister, a recent recipient of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL) Foundation’s Award of Excellence for her extraordinary commitment to the community, was the keynote at the annual Altrusa International of Downtown Dallas Inc. prospective membership luncheon held Tuesday, February 17th. Hofmeister has been president of the Altrusa Club twice during her two and a half decades of membership, and is also a previous District Governor, a position which encompasses the entire state.
Twenty eight guests responded to the annual membership luncheon event held Tuesday at The City Club, located on the 69th floor of the Bank of America Building downtown. Two new members were inducted during the meeting, bringing the total number of club members to 68. Altrusa Club President Kim Schonwald, Owner of Bookkeeping in Motion and the 2013 Altrusan of the Year, was the Master of Ceremonies.
The club is made up of professional women who commit their time, energy, and passion to educating families for a better future in the Dallas Metroplex. The club is affiliated with Altrusa International, Inc., a service organization for civic-minded people who strive to create better communities through its more than 300 clubs worldwide.
Since its inception in 1982 the downtown club members have raised nearly a million dollars to award grants to local non-profit organizations through its 501(c)(3) foundation. The club's emphasis is on literacy initiatives and helping to strengthen families to build a stronger community and better city of Dallas.
In addition to the monetary grants, the Altrusa club members routinely provide hands-on community service to various non-profit projects in the area, with its club members having provided over 89,000 service hours.
Kids-U was selected to be the primary beneficiary of the 2014 Dessert First Fund Raiser held October 23rd last year. Originally formed in 2002 as Dallas Community Lighthouse, Kids-U addresses one of the most profound problems in Dallas: children not completing their education. To combat challenges that low-income face, Kids-U provides free after school tutoring on-site in low-income apartment communities. Students are able to “come home” to their apartment community and work with tutors to improve their abilities in the core learning subjects of math, language arts and reading. Kids-U strives to provide pathways out of poverty for students who are most at-risk of not completing their education. For the academic year 2013-2014, 100% of Kids-U students were promoted to the next grade. More information about Kids-U may be found at www.kids-u.org
The Altrusa club meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month at noon in The City Club. To learn more about the club or attend a lunch, see www.altrusadtd.com or contact the club's membership chair Nina Cox: ninacox@marykay.com.
PHOTO #2: Altrusa members Gina Tolmas and Susan Melnick catch up after the luncheon; #3 New Member Monica Urbaniak with veteran member attorney Karen Washington hold a sign directing guests from beneath the Bank of America ground floor to the elevators; #3 Altrusa member Mary Boggs with her guests after the luncheon.